Another Rendition

[Harry Edwards]

As a recovering Baptist I'd have to agree.  There are a few goodhearted 
christians out there: Jimmy Carter and Bill Moyers come to mind.  (And 
Frances Morey too).  But the deafening silence we're hearing is that of 
all the true christians, churches and churchgoers.  A plague on 
monotheism!         twisty dodds


On Mar 9, 2005, at 10:16 AM, Clark Santos wrote:

> Frances,
> 	You sure weren't born in the Baptist church, where it was an outright 
> sin to shop anywhere but HEBs. Do you really think Christianity and 
> religions were founded to save souls and get people closer to God.
> 	Think how much more your car registration would cost without free 
> license plates.
>
> EL PATRON	
>
> On Mar 9, 2005, at 1:12 AM, Frances Morey wrote:
>
> Ramsey,
> I'm scared, too. Just when we can't believe anything worse can happen, 
> it does. I feel that the Know-Nothings led by the Neocons, rather than 
> the christians, are the real weapons of our national destruction. It 
> isn't christian to withhold stem cell research depriving countless 
> people who would benefit from it. It isn't christian to incarcerate 
> more people than any nation on earth! It isn't christian to run a 
> government for the protection of the rich to the detriment of the 
> majority of the populace, rejecting a hike in the minimum wage, which 
> 60% of the voters favor, turning our nation into a mean spirited, 
> angry, punitive and heartless place. That marijuana is cynically kept 
> illegal because the war on drugs feeds the judicial-incarceration 
> industry is another instance where 60% of the people favor 
> decriminalization and the legislation does not reflect the opinion of 
> the public, indeed, countermands it. Where's the democracy?
> The poor are getting poorer, and can't support their churches, so the 
> "faith based" funding props them up, in exchange for delivering the 
> vote. That ain't christian, it's an insidious plot to control the 
> population as it squeezes them from middle class into poverty, while 
> the rich bask in greedy triumph with tax cuts.
> Christianity hasn't sold out, the churches that cloak themselves in 
> it have. There is a difference.
> From being on the road, Katfish reinforced what we tend to take for 
> granted--that we live in a kind of rarified social hothouse here in 
> Austin. Most of the country is the way he and Della found it and 
> reported it to us. I don't feel so bad about not being able to travel. 
> I'm just glad I can hang on here.
> Frances
> ----- Original Message -----
>  From: Ramsey Wiggins
> To: GHETTO2 at LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM
> Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 11:19 PM
> Subject: Re: Rendition
>
> Seems to me every time christians get a lot of power, people get 
> burned at the stake -- to save their souls, of course. Power and rigid 
> ideology produce ever more strenuous coercion every time they get 
> together. If people dissent, more and more power is applied, 
> ratcheting up the level of coercion to torture, mass imprisonments, 
> and finally mass murder.
>
> We could also compare the republican putsch to Stalin, whose rise to 
> power had a similar arc: a reform movement -- the russian revolution 
> -- based on a rigid ideology, co-opted by a powerful psychopath and 
> propped up by platitudes about the general welfare and fear of enemies 
> without and within. By the time the secret police are disappearing 
> people, the Stockholm syndrome sets in and everybody loves big 
> brother.
>
> We need to start keeping track of one another. The way we carry on, it 
> wouldn't surprise me if one of us woke up in an egyptian jail one day.
>
> Seriously.
>
> RW
>
>
> On Tuesday, March 8, 2005, at 07:41 AM, Gerry wrote:
>
>
> Gonzales, the American hero poor boy who made it to the top, is lying 
> through his big white teeth. Will this be his role now, apologist for 
> war crimes? In the New Yorker there is a long, in-depth article on 
> rendition and how since 9/11 the US has sent hundreds of prisoners 
> abroad to be tortured. This practice is, perhaps, the most dastardly 
> of all the practices engaged in by the Bushies and Rummy, including 
> firing on unidentified vehicles occupied by Italian journalists. I 
> guarantee the NY article will make your flesh crawl. Now they are 
> denying it in spite of a ton of evidence to the contrary. War 
> criminals, torturers, christians run amok. They are tainting all of us 
> and digging such a deep hole we may not be able to crawl out of it in 
> our lifetimes.
> G